Sunday 24 May 2009

Sr Wendy Beckett on Radio 2


Sr Wendy was interviewed this morning on BBC Radio 2's Sunday morning programme hosted by Aled Jones. I caught the second half of the interview (which tells you how long I was able to lie in this morning!). Sr Wendy was talking about her most recent book, a study of early Christian icons of the Blessed Virgin (this was the bit of the interview I missed).

Aled Jones asked Sr Wendy about her daily routine: "Get up ... pray ... go to Mass ... pray ... pray ... pray ... pray ... pray ... pray ... go to bed". (I feel sure there is some eating in there somewhere, too).

And about how she kept in touch with what was happening in the outside world - radio, television? "Oh no". Does that mean that you can't listen to this programme? "That is such a shame [though the listener inevitably thought that Sr would not miss radio].... I see yesterday's paper. I read the front page, and then the back page for the sport and the obituaries". And, in a touch very appropriate to the Year of St Paul, Sr Wendy explained that she did not have a favourite football team but read the sports pages because she was inspired by the way in which people taking part in sport were so keen to succeed that they gave their whole lives to it.

I liked Sr Wendy's "moment of reflection" just before the 8 am news bulletin (in the past, this was a time of prayer led by the guest, but has been subjected to the process of secularisation on the grounds, I suppose, of equality). It was an extract from her new book and spoke about the way in which the early icons of the Blessed Virgin could give a vividness and immediacy to what can become a Christian life now that is primarily oriented by doctrinal teaching and learning.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This post made me think of two things
1)Hearing the 8am news didn't sound like a "lie in"!
2)Did you manage to get an icon of St John Vianney or was the bookshop full of books about the newly installed Archbishop of Westminster?
It was good to hear Sr Wendy looked at the Obits and the sports pages- I do that myself- it's quite surprising how many race horses have names with religious sounding names.

Joe said...

Anonymous:

1) Remember, I don't do Irish time ...
2) No and Yes, though the latter was not the cause of the former.

Isn't there another page of the Timesyou look at, on a Saturday?